Afternoon in the hidden gem of the Tuscan valley

San Gimignano Travel Blog

They call San Gimignano the "Manhattan of Tuscany". At first I thought the title was a bit stupid, after having been to the place, I think it's even worse! And that's the whole idea why I say this town is the most underrated of all the Tuscany towns I've seen, and would strongly recommend this to anyone. If anything, I say visit this place first AND THEN go to Siena.

The bus ride from Siena to San Gimignano was a bit longer than I thought, infact took nearly an hour so it was about 4pm when we reached the place. From the get-go, I knew I'd like this place. As the town appraoches atop the hill, you start to see the so-called "skyscrapers", and the ride up is incredible! Those lovely Tuscan houses, that countryside! The vast peaceful countryside.

.. it's just incredible!

The town is fort-ed. You have a long walk to the Piazza with tons of little shops en route, obvious tourist stops. I was famished, so got into one, had a pizza and a gelato before I powered on to the Piazza. This place is lovely, really nice. It's straight out of a movie, it's almost like the Italian version of what I saw in Bruges. Loved the random creeper growing on the building, the well, I loved the well!! Just so many things about this place, people sitting around and chatting (granted, they were tourists doing the "wow" touristy thing), but it was still lovely all the same.

My only gripe about myself is that I didn't have enough time here, and the sun and noise and walking of Siena had tired me that I really didn't want to "explore" the place, besides it was nearing 6pm and I didn't want to miss the bus back to Firenze. But I definitely enjoyed the 2 hours I spent here. Infact my advice for people doing Siena and San G as a day trip is - do San G first! See it with energy, with passion and soak yourself in every way possible. It's a gorgeous little town, something that Siena can only dream of becoming!

Anyway caught the bus back to Firenze and reached around 9pm. Dinner was a nice pizza gourmet style, totally YUM and the sauce was out of the world. I love italian tomatoes! LOL!